Journal of Tropical Oceanography ›› 2023, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (6): 101-110.doi: 10.11978/2022266CSTR: 32234.14.2022266

• Marine Biology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Isolation and characterization of sand fixation ability of bacteria in biological soil crusts of the tropical islands, South China Sea

HUANG Yu1,2(), WANG Lin1, MAI Zhimao1, LI Jie1, ZHANG Si1,3()   

  1. 1. CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    3. Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou 511458, China
  • Received:2022-12-29 Revised:2023-02-27 Online:2023-11-10 Published:2023-03-06
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(42206155); Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China(2022A1515011889); Guangzhou Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation(202201010499)

Abstract:

There are many microbial resources present in biological soil crusts of tropical reefs in the South China Sea, and the extracellular polysaccharides secreted by these microorganisms play an important role in promoting sand consolidation. In this study, three media, TSA, modified TSA and MA, were used to isolate and purify culturable bacteria from biological soil crusts in the Yongshu Reef and Luhuitou, Sanya, South China Sea. A total of 70 bacterial strains were isolated and purified in this study. And based on 16S rRNA gene identification, these isolated strains belonged to 3 phyla, 5 classes, 12 orders and 19 families, 25 genera. The dominant phylum was Firmicutes and the dominant genus was Bacillus. In addition, 22 strains had less than 98.65%16S rRNA gene similarities with known species, which were potential novel species. The extracellular polysaccharide content of purified strains was measured by ethanol precipitation method and phenol sulfate method, and the contents of 19 strains were more than 0.013 mg·mL-1. Finally, 9 strains with the highest extracellular polysaccharide content were selected to determine the soil agglomeration ability. The results showed that strain SCSIO 17111 (Lysobacter) was the only strain which was able to maintain the stability of the biological soil crust clods by spraying. Our study provides high extracellular polysaccharide-producing strain resources for island reef management.

Key words: South China Sea reefs, culturable bacterial diversity, extracellular polysaccharide, sand fixation